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Ammembal Subba Rao Pai, a philanthropist, established the Canara Hindu Permanent Fund in Mangalore, India, on 1 July 1906.[2] The bank changed its name to Canara Bank Limited in 1910 when it incorporated.

Canara Bank's first acquisition took place in 1961 when it acquired Bank of Kerala. Bank of Kerala had been founded in September 1944 and at the time of its acquisition on 20 May 1961 had three branches. The second bank that Canara Bank acquired was Seasia Midland Bank (Alleppey), which had been established on 26 July 1930 and had seven branches at the time of its takeover.[3][4]

In 1958, the Reserve Bank of India had ordered Canara Bank to acquire G. Raghumathmul Bank, in Hyderabad. This bank had been established in 1870, and had converted to a limited company in 1925. At the time of the acquisition G. Raghumathmul Bank had five branches.[5] The merger took effect in 1961.[4] Later in 1961, Canara Bank acquired Trivandrum Permanent Bank. Trivandrum Permanent Bank had been founded on 7 February 1899 and had 14 branches at the time of the merger.[4]

Next, Canara Bank acquired four banks in 1963: the Sree Poornathrayeesa Vilasam Bank, Thrippunithura, Arnad Bank, Tiruchirapalli, Cochin Commercial Bank, Cochin, and Pandyan Bank, Madurai. Sree Poornathrayeesa Vilasam Bank had been established on 21 February 1923 and at the time of its acquisition it had 14 branches. Arnad Bank had been established on 23 December 1942 and at the time of its acquisition had only one branch. Cochin Commercial Bank had been established on 3 January 1936, and at the time of its acquisition had 13 branches.[4]

The Government of India nationalised Canara Bank, along with 13 other major commercial banks of India, on 19 July 1969. In 1976, Canara Bank inaugurated its 1000th branch. In 1985, Canara Bank acquired Lakshmi Commercial Bank in a rescue. This brought Canara Bank some 230 branches in northern India.

In 1996, Canara Bank became the first Indian Bank to get ISO certification for "Total Branch Banking" for its Seshadripuram branch in Bangalore. Canara Bank has now stopped opting for ISO certification of branches.

Canara Bank established its International Division in 1976. In 1983, Canara Bank opened its first overseas office, a branch in London. Two years later, Canara Bank established a subsidiary in Hong Kong, Indo Hong Kong International Finance. In 2008-9, Canara Bank opened its third foreign operation, this one a branch in Shanghai. Later Canara Bank established a branch each in Leicester and Bahrain, and converted its Hong Kong subsidiary into a branch. It also has a representative office in Sharjah.

Together with State Bank of India, Canara Bank established a joint venture in Moscow, Commercial Bank of India LLC.

Canara Bank provides the general manager and the branch managers for Al Razouki Intl Exchange Co (LLC), which a number of business leaders and Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) established in 1981 in the United Arab Emirates to facilitate remittances to India by tourists and NRIs.

Since 1983, Canara Bank has been responsible for the management of Eastern Exchange Co. WLL, Doha, Qatar, which Abdul Rahman M.M. Al Muftah had established in 1979. [6]

Canara Bank opened its seventh overseas branch in New York, USA on 10 June 2014.

Canara Bank partnered with UNEP to initiate a solar loan program. It was a four-year $7.6 million effort, launched in April 2003, to help accelerate the market for financing solar home systems in southern India.